Brockton mayor sues City Council to block Water Commission appointment

On Feb. 6, Kathryn Archard was appointed to the commission by the council president to fill a vacancy, but Mayor Bill Carpenter is now seeking an injunction in Brockton Superior Court to block the council leader from making any further appointments and invalidate his appointment of Archard.

BROCKTON – Kathryn Archard, the city’s newest Water Commission member, has found herself in the middle of a lawsuit between Mayor Bill Carpenter and City Council President Robert Sullivan.

On Feb. 6, Archard was appointed to the commission by Sullivan to fill a vacancy, but Carpenter is now seeking an injunction in Brockton Superior Court to block Sullivan from making any further appointments and invalidate his appointment of Archard.

“Everything. It has everything to do with me, specifically,” said Archard when asked if she thought it was the appointment of her specifically that generated the request for injunction.

“He (Carpenter) does not want someone with the ability and intelligence to raise questions on the commission,” Archard added.

During the election, Archard, a member of the grassroots organization Stop the Power, was often critical of Carpenter, particularly in regard to his support for a 350-megawatt gas-fired power plant proposed to be built on the city’s south side.

However, Carpenter’s chief of staff states that the administration is seeking the injunction to resolve a discrepancy between a city ordinance and state law.

“There’s statues that say one thing and there’s a city ordinance that says something else,” said Bob Buckley, Carpenter’s chief of staff. “We’re just looking for a clarification of the rules.”

Carpenter claims in court documents that a 1996 city ordinance, which established the five-member Water Commission, violates a state law that grants total appointment power to the mayor when it comes to municipal boards and commissions.

The ordinance allows the mayor to appoint three members to the commission while the council president is allowed to be appoint two.

However, Carpenter claims in court documents that even if the ordinance was found not to be in violation of state law, Sullivan would still not be allowed to appoint members to the commission because the way the ordinance is written appointments made by the council president were limited to the commission’s creation and all subsequent appointments were to be made by the mayor.

Sullivan disagrees with Carpenter’s interpretation, however.

“The City Council president has been allowed and authorized to appoint people to the Water Commission,” Sullivan said. “It’s a practice in the city ordinances that’s been adhered to since 1996.”

Sullivan added that he was “disappointed” that Carpenter had not reached out to him to discuss the matter before filing the suit against Sullivan and the City Council, which is also listed as a defendant in the case.

“He just came before the City Council to express that he needed additional resources in the Law Department, but I didn’t know that he needed them to sue the City Council,” Sullivan said in reference to a recent request Carpenter made to the council to fund another position in the city solicitor’s office.

Page 2 of 2 - “It’s really a waste of resources and taxpayers’ money,” added Sullivan, in regards to the case.